One month does not a trend make, but February’s Producer Price Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows incremental increases in the value of metal-cutting machine tools, metalforming machine tools, fabricated structural metal products, and structural, architectural and pre-engineered metal products.

Comments from purchasing executives in the latest PMI survey reflect continued manufacturing strength, but expanding at much lower levels.

The bullishness of the three-month outlook for new orders among surveyed metalformers tapered off a bit in October, while the Purchasing Managers Index fell by 1.5 points from September.

Purchasing managers in March reported new orders and production are at strong levels and that companies are hiring to support further output.